1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to film wrapped containers such as flower pots and processes for producing and marketing such containers. More particularly, it relates to products produced by applying printed heat-shrinkable PVC or PETG film wrappings over containers having no human-readable visible display markings thereon and, at most, having only machine-readable visible markings such as bar code symbols imprinted thereon so that the heat shrinkable film wrappings can be readily removed, if desired, to reveal the containers which either have no human-readable visible display markings thereon or, if the containers have any markings thereon, the visible markings are only machine-readable.
2. Description of the Related Art
In displaying and selling packaged goods, it is generally important to apply visible markings such as product identifiers, instructional material, corporate logos, trademarks and the like to the visible portions of a container for commercial purposes such as sales promotion of the goods packaged in the container. Heretofore, such visible markings have generally been applied directly to the visible portions of a container by various techniques including printing, embossing, etching and the like either directly onto the side walls of the container or by attaching to the container a film or wrapper having the visible markings thereon.
The direct application method has been known in the prior art to exhibit numerous disadvantages. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,817 describes the extreme difficulty of printing high quality multi-color visible markings on an often irregularly shaped container surface. Furthermore, it has been recognized heretofore that applying a pre-printed label to a container allows for higher quality printing and more sophisticated color schemes to be utilized.
Heretofore, various types of printed films and methods for labeling packaged goods have been used throughout the packaging industry. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,512,120 discloses a method for applying a heat-shrinkable film to a container such as a beverage can. U.S. Pat. No. 6,375,771 discloses a method of applying an elastic label to a container by stretching the label around the container. U.S. Pat. No. 6,325,879 discloses a method for applying a label to an irregularly shaped and curved container. U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,817 discloses a label to be used on a food container that will not detach from the container when subjected to heat sterilization. U.S. Pat. No. 5,512,352 discloses a method of applying a heat-shrinkable label to an object with a small diameter, such as a battery. U.K. Patent No. 2,186,213 discloses a general heat-shrinkable label with attached heat-activated adhesive that helps keep the label attached to the container.
The labels that these patents disclose provide users in the industry with a wide variety of options to use for various labeling applications. However, none of these patents disclose a label that can be easily removed from the container after it has been attached. All of these patents incorporate some type of label attaching means that prevent the labels from being removed.
Most of the prior patents require the use of an adhesive to adhere the label to the container. Other patents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,817 require the use of melt-bonding to adhere the label to the container. U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,378 requires a label to be welded to a container by applying heat to the label. The permanent nature of the label attachment in these patents is disadvantageous to users who desire to remove the label from the container.
Other patents disclose the use of labels constructed from foamed polystyrene material. U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,861 discloses labels constructed partially of polystyrene that are applied to glass containers to help prevent breakage. U.S. Pat. No. 4,486,366 discloses a method of producing foamed polystyrene labels that can be stored without undergoing shrinkage at ambient temperature. U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,238 discloses a label constructed from foamed polystyrene which is used to insulate the temperature of the inside container from the outside environment.
Foamed polystyrene labels are heat-shrunk onto containers and do not require the use of adhesives. These labels can also contain printed material. However, the heat-shrunk labels cannot be readily removed from the underlying container surface. Furthermore, although the foamed polystyrene labels disclosed in these patents are useful for some labeling applications, the polystyrene label provides a poor surface on which to print visible markings. During the heat-shrinking process, the printed visible markings on the label can become distorted by streaks and creases that form in the polystyrene material. Thus, the use of polystyrene labels is limited to applications with very basic printing requirements. This limitation on print quality is disadvantageous to a user that requires or desires a sophisticated print design. U.S. Pat. No. 4,486,366 discloses other disadvantages of constructing labels from foamed polystyrene, such as the material's brittleness and the foam's susceptibility to tearing and fracturing.
Other U.S. patents disclose labels that have flexibility in the amount and type of printed visible markings that is visible. U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,093 discloses a label that has a double layer to provide increased surface area to apply printed material. U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,674 discloses a label that can be rotated to expose different types of visible markings printed on the container below the rotating label. U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,448 discloses a label that can be scratched off to reveal a contrasting color below. All of the products described in these patents, however, exhibit disadvantages.
Although the labels disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,093 are partially removable, the bottom-most layer of the label is adhered to the container and is not removable. Likewise, although the labels disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,674 can be removed completely, the container itself contains non-removable printed visible display markings which convey information about the product to a human customer. A user cannot completely remove either of these labels to reveal a neutral container having no visible markings or only machine-readable visible markings such as bar codes. The scratch-off label disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,448 does not contain any printed visible markings itself, but rather must be scratched off to create the printed visible markings. Thus, this label is not useful to a user desiring to have removable printed label.
In addition to the labels disclosed in the previously identified patents, certain prior art patents have disclosed various covers to be placed around plant pots. These products all present a variety of problems and disadvantages.
For example, the invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,253,488, discloses a double pot with a transparent inner pot and an opaque outer pot. No printing is present on the outer pot, and the outer pot cannot be removed for long periods because the root system will be damaged by sunlight penetrating the transparent inner pot. U.S. Pat. No. 6,343,456 discloses a plant cover constructed of a heat shrinkable material. However, unlike the present invention, this plant cover is bonded to the container by forming a crimp in the plant cover. This crimping secures the cover to the container and prevents convenient removal of the cover from the underlying container.
Other plant pot covers disclosed in the prior art are merely decorative in nature. U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,241 discloses a decorative cover made from fabric and attached to the pot with elastic strips or “Velcro” attachments. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,393,801; 6,385,907; 6,230,441 and 6,173,553 disclose various decorative sleeves that can be placed around a plant pot to protect the plant during transport. None of these patents use heat-shrinkable material in the construction of the pot plant covers. None disclose printing visible display markings on the covers. Plant covers constructed from shrink-wrapped material are more advantageous than plant covers constructed from cloth and “Velcro.”
From a commercial perspective, applying printed labels on the sides of containers has reduced the flexibility a distributor of containers has to market products. That is, once a label has been attached to a container, the label gives the product an identity in the consumer marketplace, and once this identity has attached to the product the seller must sell the product bearing this specific identity to a consumer.
Although labels printed on separately attached films allow sellers more flexibility than labels printed on the side-wall of containers, the inability to change the identity of the product created by the visible markings on a container is a substantial disadvantage of the packaging systems known in the prior art. A seller with the ability to remove and replace product packaging labels without changing or damaging the product would have a considerable advantage over other sellers who cannot alter the appearance of a product after a label has been attached.
A removable label allows a seller to alter the appearance of a product to reflect the ever-changing tastes of the buying public. Product labels can be changed to reflect seasonal and holiday promotions throughout the year while the product being sold remains unchanged. Product labels can also contain film and television merchandising tie-ins, and label changes can be synchronized with corresponding theatrical, television or album release dates.
Removable labels are also especially useful in the sale of damageable or perishable goods. Sellers of such goods face a dilemma when the quality of these goods falls below the standards associated with the brand-name or logo. For example, perishable goods typically have an expiration date, after which the freshness and quality of the consumable is not guaranteed. After goods have expired, sellers have few options to dispose of the goods. Selling the expired goods at a discount will hurt the reputation of the brand-name, trademark or logo, because the expired goods are of a lower quality than goods usually sold under the identifying mark. In this situation, a seller must either incur a large monetary loss and not sell the inferior goods, or sell the inferior goods at a discount and risk diminishing the reputation of the brand-name, trademark or logo.
Perishable goods are not limited to consumable products, but include products such as plants, flowers, film, batteries, household chemicals and industrial chemicals. A system whereby all identifying marks that can be read and understood by a human customer are removed would be extremely useful for any product that has the potential to lose quality as time passes.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to overcome the above-described disadvantages of the prior-art and to provide efficient, cost effective containers having heat-shrinkable film wrappings or labels applied thereto.
A further object of this invention is to provide a process for producing such containers having heat-shrinkable film wrappings or labels applied thereto.
A still further significant object of the present invention is to provide a process for marketing the containers having heat-shrinkable film wrappings or labels applied thereto in a new and improved, cost effective manner.